On Sunday, Universal Music Group chairperson and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge became the latest high-profile Hollywood figure to test positive for the coronavirus. According to Variety, the record-label boss is now undergoing treatment at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles following the outcome of his testing. Grainge, who Billboard dubbed music’s Executive of […]
Are you one of the people who is ignoring the World Health Organization’s advice to stay inside and engage in the practice of social distancing? Perhaps because you are a young person who takes vitamin supplements, the front man of a psycho-billy band, or an entrepreneurial rapper who loves strip clubs and as such think […]
The artist formally known as Childish Gambino, Donald Glover, blessed the world by dropping a surprise new album this morning, called Donald Glover Presents. (On livestream, no less.) The 12 song LP features your usual adult legends — Ariana Grande, SZA, and 21 Savage — but the standout guest artist might actually be Glover’s own […]
According to the New York Times, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, British musician, writer, performance artist and gender nonconformist, has died at the age of 70 following a battle with leukemia. Ryan Martin of Dais Records, to which the singer was signed, posted a message about P-Orridge’s death from her daughters Caresse and Genesse to Facebook on […]
As the saying goes, the show must go on, even in the face of a global pandemic. Ignoring every piece of available advice on how to stem the outbreak of the coronavirus, popular psychobilly band The Reverend Horton Heat has declared that they will not be cancelling any performances, simply because “they can’t stop rock […]
In these anxiety ridden times, where can we turn for comfort? Music, of course! While everyone is more or less trapped in their residences for the foreseeable future, musical artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Lizzo, and the currently quarantined Rita Wilson have been sharing their musical talents on social media in the hope that it will […]
SXSW is canceled. Coachella is delayed. Live Nation and AEG tours are suspended. Broadway is going dark. Some TV talk shows continue, eerily absent their lively studio audiences. Major sporting events are off until further notice. The brisk pace of the coronavirus outbreak is causing chaos in every sector of the entertainment industry. Curbing infections […]
If you’ve been able to find toilet paper in the stores, set some aside, because you’re going to be gently dabbing your eyes all night. Oh, or just buy tissues. Either way, you’ll be tearing up when you peruse the thread started by Broadway star Laura Benanti Friday, after she asked students to show her […]
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, a.k.a. the coronavirus, the majority of event companies and venues have canceled concerts and shows until further notice. Several cities, including New York City, San Francisco, and Dallas, have banned large gatherings in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus, and if you’ve already bought a ticket […]
When he first emerged from the depths of the internet, Jay Electronica seemed to be a project about ambition. The enigmatic New Orleans rapper’s origin story, as told in a little late-2000s sketch called “Departure,” takes place in the aftermath of a friend’s murder. He recounts: “Last night, I was across the tracks With Freddie […]
Jay Electronica’s debut album, A Written Testimony, which took a decade to finish, has made it to Tidal five full days ahead of schedule. On February 7, the elusive rapper popped out of nowhere to announce on Twitter that he had been in the studio with his mentor, Jay-Z, for the past 40 days and […]
If you think the coronavirus pandemic’s only affected massive festivals like SXSW and Coachella and big-scale tours like Billie Eilish’s and Cher’s, think again. As more metropolitan areas take necessary steps in an effort to contain the virus’s spread, thousands of smaller acts are having their entire year — and, in many cases, their only […]
Something’s got Jay-Z in his bag. The rapper works through his feelings on nearly every song on his protégé Jay Electronica’s decade-in-the-making debut album A Written Testimony. He confronts the idea of his own death, mourns loved ones, and tries to inspire others — all in-between flexing. Despite what some of his other lyrics say, […]
In 2019, Mariah Carey won the TikTok dance challenge where users danced to her song “Fantasy” … by dancing to her song “Fantasy.” Now, she’s started a new “Fantasy” challenge, involving less choreography and much more WHO-guideline awareness. On Friday, Mariah posted a TikTok of her and her adorable twins, Moroccan and Monroe, washing their […]
Lil Uzi Vert just went back-to-back. A week after releasing his highly anticipated album Eternal Atake, Lil Uzi Vert just dropped another album. Eternal Atake (Deluxe) – LUV vs. the World 2 is both a deluxe version of his recent drop and a sequel to his 2016 mixtape, Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World. Unlike Eternal […]
Mandy Moore is in the midst of staging her comeback into the music world, parlaying her occasional musical dabblings on This Is Us into a revival of her IRL music career. Last year, she debuted her first new song in years, “When I Wasn’t Watching,” and on Thursday she performed it on The Tonight Show […]
While you stock the 300 canned good items you bought at the grocery store and find a place for the 10 packages of toilet paper now in your home, listen to a gift from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Because he knows you’re all very stressed about the pandemic, Miranda dropped an unreleased song from Hamilton, since he […]
With New York becoming the latest place to ban large gatherings (of more than 500, in the state’s case) and Live Nation and AEG — the two biggest live entertainment companies — pausing its international and domestic arena tours through at least March, concerts are looking to become significantly rarer in the coming days due […]
These are uncertain times for the music industry. Amidst growing fears regarding the coronavirus, which has now reached over 130,000 cases worldwide, many concerts and festivals have been canceled or postponed, including Coachella and SXSW. But Glastonbury, one of the largest outdoor festivals in the world, is still planning to go on as scheduled this […]
Due to the spread of coronavirus, Live Nation has instructed its foreign and domestic tours to all return home. Billboard reports that, as of Thursday, Live Nation “told employees it is hitting the pause button on current touring arena shows through the end of the month.” Outside of select shows Thursday and Friday night, all […]
Following the cancellation and postponements of major live music events like Coachella, SXSW, and Ultra in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced that its show will also not go on, at least not anytime soon. The Hall is postponing its May 2 induction ceremony for the 2020 […]
Teens can make anything cool. Their social-media superiority launched songs like “Old Town Road” and “The Box” to No. 1 on the Billboard charts, and every day, pop songs like Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” become templates for teens to dance, lip-sync, or act to. But the creative geniuses on TikTok are also discovering (and […]
You know the story about Nero fiddling while Rome burns? Anyway, here’s Kelly Clarkson swapping face-to-face airborne sing-spit with a literal fiddler as they parade through a packed-as-ever studio audience on The Kelly Clarkson Show Thursday morning. While other shows have agreed to stop filming in front of live studio audiences, Clarkson treated her devoted […]
A few nights ago, I joined more than 3,000 audience members from all over the world at the Metropolitan Opera for a performance of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, about a ship’s captain doomed to drift endlessly, disembarking only briefly every seven years to search for his true love. At the time, the corona-infected cruise ship […]
Brandy Clark, one of country music’s great songwriters and behind-the-scenes collaborators, has had a hand in writing hits for Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, and more. But on March 6, she let the world in on an even lesser-known secret: Clark’s been keeping her best work yet to […]
A lot of rappers say they love anime, but Lil Uzi Vert is the rare artist who deserves a series of his own. The Philly star is short in stature with a massive personality, a shit talker who’s also in touch with his feelings, a sharp dresser with a flair for colorful hair. Like a […]
Even before the slime-green roots made their grand debut, Billie Eilish has long favored a boxy, oversize fashion aesthetic while out in public — a choice that she previously explained is not to avoid being sexualized as a young female musician, but rather because, simply, she’s more comfortable wearing baggy clothes. During the opening of […]
Looks like you’ll have to completely redo your festival wardrobe for a new season, but reportedly, you’ll have the time. Just days after the organizers of SXSW decided to cancel this year’s events in Austin over concerns about the spread of coronavirus, Billboard reports that both Coachella, scheduled to begin April 10, and Stagecoach are […]
Guess you’ll have to wear all your festival outfits in the privacy of your own home this year. Just days after the organizers of SXSW decided to cancel this year’s events in Austin over concerns about the spread of coronavirus, Billboard reports that both Coachella and Stagecoach are “in talks” to be postponed until October […]
First a taping of The Price Is Right, and now a deli? If HAIM performs in your neighbor’s driveway, they’ll essentially be on a tour of your dad’s favorite places on Earth. Instead, they’re going on an official tour of the nation’s delis this month, specifically the delis in the part of the nation that […]